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Do small business owners have to become warriors in order to slay competitors on the business battlefield, or can we succeed by being ourselves? Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication recently asked these questions in a blog post, and it got me thinking.
We are bombarded with advice based on this business-as-battlefield metaphor, and have been for years. When I started work in the early 1990s, the language was exactly the same: success meant standing triumphantly over the body of your defeated opponent. Much has changed in the last two decades, but armies of business experts still base their advice on the same old story.
Once you enter the field of battle, the tactical advice is also antagonistic. For instance, I’m seeing lots of advice about how to use Twitter. While Twitter is relatively new, thousands of people are experimenting with it and trying to figure out what it means for them. Accompanying this organic growth are heaps of blog posts with titles like: “How to not get me to follow you on Twitter” and “The top 10 reasons why I will not follow you.” Many seem self-congratulatory, trumpeting “I’ve cracked the Twitter code, and you haven’t.” But is there really just one right way to use Twitter that we all should adopt or face certain failure?
That nagging “should” is echoed in mountains of advice that I have read since starting my own business. Everyone seems to know exactly what I should do to succeed and what I must never do at the risk of awful failure.
To my surprise all this advice had an unexpected effect on me. I’m a generally rule-abiding good girl, but, this time, I concluded that I should completely discard it—and not politely either. In fact, I concluded that I should heave the whole pile of tosh into the nearest trash can with a whoop of delight.
I don’t want to start a fight that ends with winners and losers. That’s really not me, and besides, it’s exhausting. What I do want is the chance to create work that is meaningful to me and of service to my clients. I can’t pretend to be some kind of writing warrior; if I am to deliver on what I promise, it needs to start from who I really am.
So, if I’m not donning body armor and wading out into a sea of blood each day, what does my version of business look like?
Picture a place where people are talking about the things that really excite them and planning ways to create mutual value and benefit. It’s a warm and inviting place where everyone is at ease and feels free to join in. In fact, picture your favorite coffee shop.
Yes, in my ideal business world, good work gets done in informal surroundings and comfortable chairs. I work with other people or quietly by myself, listening to music and occasionally leafing through the latest magazines and online sites for inspiration. Other people don’t represent competition but a friendly buzz of conversation and new ideas. At the end of this process of conversation and collaboration, my clients get a well-brewed product tailored exactly to their taste.
This year I say “Enough!” to all those experts who tell me I need to be a warrior. Instead I plan to offer them a latte, and start telling my business story my way. Wish me luck!
Alison Harrison is a writer and communication consultant in San Francisco. Read more in her blog Making Connections. |
